Helen Thornham

Dr Helen Thornham is a Research Fellow at Leeds University and has published widely on the social and cultural transformations of digital technologies. She has been PI on a number of projects investigating young people’s use of digital technologies including an AHRC Knowledge Infusion Grant project entitled ‘Still Alone Together?’ that worked with the BBC Future, Media and Technology team. Here, she investigated interface, design, interactive and ideological issues pertaining to the construction and success of offline and online digital communities. Previous research has investigated the flows and values of community in relation to adult gamers, and more recently she has been PI on a project investigating the constructions of communities through digital technologies by young people. These projects routinely raise questions around conceptions, practices and imaginings of community and culture in the digital age, as well as how such conceptions may be envisaged and supported in the future.

Keywords: New media theory, digital cultures, youth, identity, use, space, place, community, culture